Innocence Blog

Louisiana inmate finally secures access to DNA test

Posted: August 23, 2007 12:49 pm

After repeatedly requesting a DNA test to prove his innocence over the last 11 years, Innocence Project client Archie Williams was finally granted testing this week by a Louisiana appeals court. Williams, who is serving life in prison for a 1983 rape he says he didn’t commit, was identified by the victim in the case after she had viewed 17 photo lineups –  the last three of which included him.  (Williams’s was the only photo to appear in more than one photo array shown to the victim, which is improper.)

East Baton Rouge prosecutors said they would appeal Monday’s circuit court decision because they believed the identification in the case was valid and that DNA couldn’t prove innocence. Prosecutors have argued that the sperm cells in rape kit evidence in the case must have come from the victim’s husband, but the Innocence Project has countered in legal papers that DNA testing can identify and distinguish between the perpetrator and the husband.

Read more about the case in yesterday’s press release.

Read media coverage of the case in today’s Baton Rouge Advocate.